When was the last time you made a post on social media? Not a quick Instagram story of your coffee mug or a two-line tweet about your day — but a real post. The kind where you chose the right images, edited them, wrote a caption you thought about, maybe even debated whether it was “good enough” to share. For me, it’s been a long time, longer than I can recall what my last post was. And I think I know why. In the age of AI, everything we see online has become so polished, so “perfect,” that anything less feels inadequate, as if somehow being human in today’s world feels like a crime. We have trained our minds for content that’s so filtered, optimized, and personally crafted that our emotional expression seeks truths and questions that ask: Is it necessary? Why should I post this? Does it make a difference? And much more. But your self-expression was never supposed to be put into an algorithm to decide if it was “good enough”. And maybe that’s why the world feels so artificial these days. Soulless and heartless to begin with, so much shine that it hurts to see.
We no longer tumble down rabbit holes out of curiosity; we don’t type a question into Google, we reach for an AI-generated answer and simply move on. Somewhere along the way, the joy of exploring, the messiness of self-expression, and the depth of human curiosity got replaced by neat, clickable summaries.
The Death of Third Places
And somewhere down the line, today we all grapple with this unexplainable sense of emptiness in a world that is too loud. A sense of longing that leaves you staring at the ceiling at 2 in the night, a restlessness that you can’t quite point to somewhere. Social media today has effectively made us all feel less, think lesser, and, worst of all, believe in ourselves the least. When the age of social media dropped, I think everyone was convinced that remaining in contact online through Instagram and Facebook was enough. All those third places where we met, hung out — the libraries, the cafes, the hangout spot across the road near your home — they are all slowly vanishing. But the thing that hurts is that social media has not only effectively blunted down our attention spans so much that we can hardly do small talk or sit in that remote discomfort of being awkward, but also made a change so fundamental about us that the damage is irreparable in most cases. Our very nature of being a social animal has been stuffed into an individualistic fire ring, with our FOMO issues being the fire lines. We want to get out, but that is what is holding us all back. How ironic, right?
The Mass Hysteria of FOMO and the Devil of Infinite Scroll. Okay, now this is recall time. And I need you to first calm yourself down — and maybe, if you’re reading this, that means you are holding a device in your hand. What was the reason you picked it up? How long has it been since you switched on the screen? I know this suddenly feels like breaking the fourth wall in a constantly digital world, but mindfulness in consuming the internet has almost become an essential part of today’s digitally flooded life. So, the next time you find yourself reaching for your phone, pause before picking it up. Try to speak to yourself for a minute or two. And yes, another question: how long has it been since you sat yourself down in the thoughtfulness of your own words and feelings? Maybe this is your sign to consider a break. Because I understand why we are all constantly on our screens
today. We are desperate to run away from our emotions. To simply feel good all the time. To avoid feeling down. To cope with the fact that you are not the only person out there feeling a certain way. But over time, this coping mechanism is not just dangerous — it’s also emotionally destructive. Because the day your emotional baggage decides to explode, everything you’ve been holding back bursts through you, and you will be all over the place — broken, weeping, and sobbing. So, try to be mindful about why you are online. The devil of infinite scroll is like that popular analogy of a carrot in front of a horse. Remember that it is deeply human and soulful to be able to express and feel emotions.
When the Heart Logged Off
We’ve built a world where connection is constant, but connection is rare. We scroll past faces we know and forget to look into the ones sitting across from us. The noise of the feed drowns out the quiet truths we used to hear in each other’s voices. But maybe it isn’t too late. Maybe if we close the tab, put the phone down, and step outside, we’ll remember the texture of real laughter, the warmth of real presence. Because in the end, no algorithm can replicate the simple, human act of truly being there.
As I log off, I have a beautiful video here for you to watch, it’s about the sense of wonder when you once really loved the old Internet.
It goes by the title,
“Internet used to be a place”:
. . .
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